We would be much more responsive to your question and be able to offer advice if you were to post the MID codes for the various types you are considering.If you can't find the MID code, call Meritline and find out from them...

Well, this is a classic illustration of two things...1) one of the reasons why -R has a bad name: most of the junk media available is -R2) one of the reasons why Meritline has a bad name: it sells mostly junk -R media

Have burned around 80 Prodisc S02 -R Bulkpaq White printables for data and movies at 4 speed on 2500A (all of two months old now) and all were perfect (checked using DVDInfo and by direct copying from DVD to hard drive as for data backup it is critical there are no errors whatsoever).6 speed (using various of Herries firmwares) is a NO GO.So, if you burn at 4 speed they are hard to beat for the price - around Â£9 from SVP

Well, this is a classic illustration of two things...1) one of the reasons why -R has a bad name: most of the junk media available is -R2) one of the reasons why Meritline has a bad name: it sells mostly junk -R media

Understood.

The answer to "why -R" is pretty simple- I am doing a lot of movies to build a catalog, and then watch on my laptop computer while on break at work.

The laptop (Compaq, ~1.5 to 2 years old) will play -R. It will not play +R. My girlfriend's home DVD player will not play +R either.

Sure, I can get her a home DVD that will play +R, but that would be pretty cheap; buying a new laptop, though, is too much money.

So pretty much if we're not going to spend the big bucks (ie, TY, Verbatim, etc) it's Ritek. Thought as much.

BeAll: Accu: :ZMeritline: (probably :Z)Prime: (probably :Z)

A quick search through the media code database over at another site shows that most of these media codes are Princo (:Z), LeadData (:Z), Longten (:Z), or no-name (:Z).

Okay. From this, it's obvious that most of the more expensive stuff isn't any better in quality.

The -R market is flooded with crap, especially if you go with a dealer with Meritline or any of the other "discount" dealers.

Yes, I'm a bit worried about the quality of the discs. Buying good stuff from someone who will take it back if there's a bad batch is probably worth the additional money.

As far as Meritline, I just used them as an example because their prices are pretty typical compared with everyone else online.

Thanks for the help to all. I suspect I'll stick with the Ritek G04 and snag that latest firmware from Herrie- who I urge everyone to support with some $$$$, along with any other forum that you find helpful. Even just $5 goes a long way if everyone who's using a resource donates.

Well, Ritek G04s will be a good bet for you if you want to stick with -R. Most of the really bad Riteks are overseas, and if you get G04s under the RiData name from Meritline or from Newegg, you will be fine.

Yeah... um... well, I read about "booktyping" and to be honest, didn't really understand what it was all about. Kinda.

I mean, I get that you tell the burner to somehow make the disc (once recorded) "look" like a different kind of disc, but I didn't really understand:A) How to do itB) If it really lets you then use the disc on players that don't take DVD+Rs anyway.

I typically use DVD Decryptor with DVD Shrink to produce the files I need, and then burn them to DVD with Nero.

(Sometimes I just use Shrink to rip/decrypt/shrink the movie all at once to fit on a single disc, and sometimes I'll use Decryptor to rip them and then use Shrink to reauthor them and split a movie across two discs; either way I use Nero to burn. I'm new, so I dunno if what I'm doing is the "best" way, but it works for me and thus I keep doing it. )

Well, Ritek G04s will be a good bet for you if you want to stick with -R. Most of the really bad Riteks are overseas, and if you get G04s under the RiData name from Meritline or from Newegg, you will be fine.

Thanks. That's really what I'm wondering about, is for the guy who doesn't care about getting the absolute BEST results every single time. He (okay, me) just wants to know which media is best at the various price points, understanding that the more expensive stuff is probably going to be higher quality.

As for me, I went ahead and ordered a hundred-disc spindle of RiDatas, so hopefully they'll be good quality ones.

Thanks for the help and the discussion, I suspect there's more folks out there that'll read/learn than we'll know.

The laptop (Compaq, ~1.5 to 2 years old) will play -R. It will not play +R. My girlfriend's home DVD player will not play +R either.

Sure, I can get her a home DVD that will play +R, but that would be pretty cheap; buying a new laptop, though, is too much money.

Claw

Last time I checked, -R is being phased out purposely by a lot of manufacturers. If your DVD player can only play -R discs, maybe it's time to get a new one; as for your laptop... well, it won't last forever either. You gotta plan for the future... I thought that all the new DELLs or SONYs or HPs don't play -R no more?

Dunno about the various brands. My laptop is a Compaq 2100 series and it chokes on the +R discs.

I got booktyping or bitsetting or whatever you call it working, though, so all my +Rs that I burned now are 'seen' as DVD-ROMs. Haven't had a chance to try them in the laptop yet, but they work fine in my home DVD player.

my personal experience:-> Datawrite Red V2 (INFOSMART01) = good with the 2500A (no error, but: if I do a Nero DVD speed => some slow down ~20% and 80% - not on all - some are VERY good with the Nec (up to 8x without pb with DVD Speed). My pioneer DVD 115 and 117 read them slowly (2x to 6x) but WITHOUT any error.-> Ridata "Ritek" (G04) - lot of errors detected on ~90% (50% of my DVD-R I've burned) with the Nec. NO ERROR with different DVD-ROM (115, 117) and DVD burner (LG).-> ARITA (Ritek G04 too) : VERY GOOD !! NO ERROR with DVDinfopro+Nec2500A. My best result (20 DVD-R already burned with my 2500A + Herrie stock 1.06 modified for the G04)A good price by www.digitalpromo.co.uk

Well, this is a classic illustration of two things...1) one of the reasons why -R has a bad name: most of the junk media available is -R2) one of the reasons why Meritline has a bad name: it sells mostly junk -R media

At the time my post was made, 8x PioData bulk was not available. It was either the extremely expensive TY PioData (which wasn't being considered by the thread starter) or it was the lowspeed PioData bulk (which was Lead Data). As for PioData's affiliation with Pioneer, I just recall reading somewhere that they were not. And with them using LD media, it seemed to support what I read. But now that they seem to be using better G05 and TY media, it does cast some doubt on what I read. shrugs